India, Japan ink pact on tech training co-operation

New Delhi: India and Japan have signed a memorandum of cooperation on Technical Intern Training Programme (TITP), the government said on Wednesday.

The pact will pave the way for sending Indian technical interns to Japan for on-the-job training for a period of three to five years, it said.

As per Japan's data for end-2016, about 2,30,000 technical intern trainees from multiple countries are on training in Japan.

The cooperation was concluded on Tuesday by Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Japanese Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Katsunobu Kato yesterday in Tokyo.

The memorandum on TITP is "expected to significantly expand the bilateral cooperation between India and Japan in the field of skill development", it added.

India is the third country with which Japan has signed this cooperation.

Ambassador of India to Japan Sujan R Chinoy stated that there is scope for India to enhance its participation in Japan's technical intern training programme.

The programme provides a platform through which complementary strengths of India and Japan could be leveraged for mutual benefit.

"The technical interns trained in Japan under the TITP would be an asset for the Skill India initiative upon their return to India," it said.

During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan in November 2016, India and Japan had concluded a memorandum of cooperation on skill development under the Manufacturing Skill Transfer Promotion Programme'.

This programme aims to train 30,000 persons over next 10 years with Japanese style manufacturing skills and practices.